'Don't Mess With Perfection' Guacamole

I've seen all sorts of things added to guacamole (onions, tomatoes, cilantro, etc), but it's my firm belief that the perfect guacamole has but four ingredients: garlic, lime juice, salt, and the all-important avocado. This goes back to the first time my friend Kama made fresh guacamole before my eyes. The flesh of a perfectly ripe avocado, scooped into a bowl, the juice of a lime, a minced garlic clove, and plenty of salt (more than you'd think to add). Mashed together roughly with a fork and not pureed, so you still have the odd chunk of creamy avocado, it was easy to prepare, gorgeous to behold, and absolutely delicious with a big bowl of tortilla chips.

This is now my go-to recipe whenever I make guac (Thanks Kama!), and so long as the avocado is ripe it's pretty much impossible to screw up. Feel free to tinker with the amount of garlic, lime juice and salt -- as mentioned I feel it needs a bit more salt than might be your instinct to put in, but give it a try and see what you think. If you're serving with salty tortilla chips you may want to back off on the salt a bit. While I used to only make guac when I had chips on hand, now I use it for sandwich spread as well (I prefer it to mayonnaise).

Don't forget that avocadoes, once sliced into, go brown quickly so try not to leave the flesh too long before adding the lime juice, which will stop the browning. Also, if you're wrapping up the leftover guac, place a sheet of plastic wrap directly over the guacamole and store it in an air-tight container.

Happy snacking!

'Don't Mess With Perfection' Guacamole

1 ripe avocado
Juice of 1 lime
1 garlic clove, minced
Salt to taste

Scoop out the avocado flesh and put it in a bowl.
Add the lime juice, garlic clove and salt.
Mash with a fork. You don't want a puree, but a rough mash.
Taste, and add more salt if desired.

Makes approximately one cup of guacamole.

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Single girl supper: Pan-Seared Rainbow Trout with Sauteed Greens

Though I had a ton of amazing leftovers in the fridge from last night's feast, I felt like making a healthy dinner for one tonight. At the supermarket I spied some Ontario-farmed rainbow trout, so I purchased a 3/4 lb fillet -- enough for two meals (one dinner, one lunch).



For a side, I wanted to use up the leftover broccoli rabe in my fridge, and I remember seeing a recipe in Everyday Italian for sauteed broccoli rabe with raisins and pine nuts. I figured that would go nicely with the trout, and it was nice and light as well.

I didn't want to do much to the trout. It was a beautiful-looking piece of fish and I didn't want to mask the flavour with something cloying or heavy. I opted to rub both sides with olive oil, cracked black pepper, and some French grey sea salt I recently bought at a specialty salt purveyor at St. Lawrence Market. The grey sea salt has an almost moist consistency, and a little goes a long way.

I cooked the broccoli rabe first since I knew the trout would take next to no time to cook. Sure enough, it only required six minutes, total. I melted a small amount of butter and oil in my frying pan, put the trout in skin side down, cooked it for four minutes, flipped it, cooked it for another two, and that was all. Perfectly done.

I squeezed a bit of fresh lemon juice on both the broccoli rabe and the trout before serving.

A healthy, delicious dinner for one -- so easy, and so fast!

Salut!

Suzanne

Email comments to suzannekathrynellis@gmail.com.